Another Side of Jeff Kelly

photo by Susanne Kelly

by Jeff Penczak (November 1999)

Poor Jeff Kelly. Rock and Roll's answer to Rodney Dangerfield - except
Rodney gets more respect. For most of the last score of the 20th century,
Jeff has been crafting some of the sweetest, most melodious and memorable
psychedelic tinged pop music these ears have encountered, mostly arranged
and interpreted by his band, The Green Pajamas. Unfortunately, outside
of a few pockets of musicologists scattered across the globe, most of these
confections have registered about as much impact as that proverbial tree
falling in the woods with no one around. Small, independent record labels
from such exotic lands as Greece (DiDi), Australia (Camera Obscura, AuGoGo),
Germany (Bouncing Records), Sweden (Sound Effects) and England (UBIK, Woronzow)
have released his work to the cognoscenti who devour each lyric, chord
progression and subtle musical nuance like a junkie scoring his last fix.
As soon as the record ends, we start it again, hunting for additional clues
to hidden meanings missed the first go round, savoring each note as if
it were his last, yet immediately yearning for more: another album, another
song....

Here in America, Tom Dyer heard something in Jeff's songs and signed
the Pajamas to his Green Monkey record label in their native Seattle, despite
the fact that Jeff's fabric of choice, paisley was immediately swallowed
up by a sea of flannel. Microscopic quantities of the first four GPJs releases
trickled out, some in cassette only versions, giving new meaning to the
term "limited edition." Along the way, Tom also released all 6 of Jeff's
solo outings, the first 4 only on cassette in even smaller editions. Now,
at last, Camera Obscura (Tony Dale's Australian imprint which single handedly
resuscitated the Pajamas' nascent career with '97s triumphant return to
glory, Strung Behind the Sun) has remastered, repackaged and reissued
three of Jeff's solo releases under the umbrella of the Melancholy Sun
box set: Coffee in Nepal (1987), Portugal (1990) and Private
Electrical Storm (1992). Rounding out the set is the previously only
released in a private "Christmas present" pressing of 50 cassetttes, The
Rosary and the House of Jade (1997). [Jeff's other solo projects are
his (cassette only) Baroquen Hearts debut (1985) and Ash Wednesday
Rain, which was released on CD by Green Monkey in 1995. A seventh solo
project, Twenty Five was a special 25th birthday present for his
wife, Susanne that Jeff gave to a few friends. Although some of the tracks
later appeared on Green Pajamas' releases, Jeff told me that he has no
plans to release it in its entirety.]

Handsomely packaged in an "Ampex" white card tape box with a 24 page
booklet and featuring Magic Eye-styled cover art (which, like the music
inside, reveals more detail upon closer examination) and exclusive photos
and drawings by Jeff's wife and muse, Susanne, Melancholy Sun presents
Another Side of Jeff Kelly. Pajamas fans anticipating settling in for another
Indian Winter, Get Hip's 1997 collection of Green Pajamas' obscurities
had better check their calendars at the door. No, this is not the place
to discover the seeds of musical ideas which later germanated in more comfortable
surroundings on a Green Pajamas' album, although a few melodies will be
familiar to the astute listener. For the most part, these songs were recorded
exclusively by Jeff and Susanne in their home on a 4 track cassette deck.
When I interviewed Kelly recently, I asked him if there was any difference
in his approaches to a solo record and a full band recording and he said,
"Actually, there is. With the Pajamas, I write more short, concise songs
with choruses that are catchy and that people would like. With solo stuff,
the songs are less formulaic." I would propose the following distinction
as well: the Green Pajamas material is written for a mass audience. It
is external and impersonal, generic if you will. As he says, something
strangers, nameless, faceless "people would like."

His solo material, on the other hand, is more internal and personal,
perhaps written only for his immediate family's ears. While the lyrics
still relate specific incidents in his life, they are carefully selected
moments which appear to be rife with in-jokes and obscure references to
dates and times and places that only Susanne could truly appreciate. By
mixing equal parts Leonard Cohen and Nick Drake with the erotic 19th century
poetry of Elizabeth Siddal (Jeff: "Now you're talking sex crazed!") and
adding a pinch of Emily Dickenson for good measure, Jeff has fashioned
soundtracks to the lives of lonely, desparate coeds, hiding in their bedrooms
underlining key passages in their fifth dog-eared copy of "The Bell Jar."
The key revelation here, however, is that Jeff numbers himself among these
women. If Holden Caulfield, that most feminine of heroes, wrote music,
I can now imagine what it might sound like. This is the most feminine music
any man has conjured forth. Strangely, no artist has evoked such cross-gendered
emotions since Janis Ian's Verve LP's helped me survive puberty over 30
years ago. This isn't any boy-meets-girl, boy-fucks-girl, girl-dumps-guy,
guy-pouts-in-the-corner-and-swears-off-women "pop" teenage psychobabble
currently fashionable with the American empty-V generation. Jeff has exorcized
his soul, laid bare his heart and dumped his life's accumulated baggage
at our feet and there's no emotional rescue on the horizon.

Now that I've made our bed, I invite you to come lie in it and witness
the melancholy sunset, Jeff Kelly style.

Coffee In Nepal (1987)

Jeff's second solo release kicks off with the pop whimsy of "In the
Blue Light." With vocal assistance from Susanne, whom he had first met
barely a year before if my math is correct- in a 1998 interview with Jud
Cost, Jeff said "My life sort of started over when I first met Susanne,
going on twelve years ago now..." This and "Sleepy People"
demonstrate immediately the giddiness of young lovers discovering potential
lifemates during the early stages of a relationship. This sense of wonder
and excitement is illustrated perfectly in the next track, "Happy, My Sweetheart,"
sung in the style of one of Moondog's madrigals or "rounds." "Maria" is
one of the few examples in the box set of a melody which reappeared later
in a Green Pajamas' setting, reminding me of "Song for Tess" on the Strung
Out EP (Camera Obscura/Endgame, 1998.) "Burn, Witch, Burn" had me preparing
for an examination of one of Jeff's (and my) favorite historical figures,
Joan of Arc. [During our recent conversation, Jeff said "That's pretty
cool that we discovered we had that in common!"] However, we'll have to
wait until Private Electrical Storm's "All the Maids in France"
for that, as this song, featuring a wonderful Neil Young-ish falsetto from
Susanne is actually a forlorn love song over a medieval carnival backing,
expressing a recurring theme throughout the box set, that of love's labors
lost.

Jeff has stated that Susanne turned him on to Leonard Cohen via a mix
tape her father had made for her and once Jeff heard "Joan of Arc" (naturally!),
"to use an old tired phrase, it blew me away... That mournful voice...
that got me hooked. I fell in love with every one of those albums." "Oh
How I Love You" illustrates that Jeff has learned much from the old codger,
as Cohen's trademark lilting, singsong melody permeates this sorrowful
confessional of Jeff begging forgiveness for causing another silly fight
over some meaningless cigar. One of my favorite aspects of Jeff's lyrics
is their ability to visually encapsulate "Kodak moments" from his and Susanne's
life. I can imagine Ingmar Bergman's SCENES FROM A MARRIAGE as one of their
favorite movies and what a soundtrack Jeff could provide if someone ever
decides to remake this landmark film. This cinematic feel, this visualization
of life's everyday occurrances is another theme that is consistently explored
throughout the disks in this box set. In fact, when I queried Jeff recently,
he replied quite simply, "Why all the imagery? I don't know. You just sort
of write about stuff that's on your mind at a particular time of day or
week or year. Most of the time, for me, it's women... To tell you the truth,
a great deal of it - probably most of it has been inspired by my wife."

The title of the box begins to reveal itself on the next track, "Panda."
Perhaps reminiscing about a Far Eastern vacation, images of China are sprinkled
throughout this harpsichord (? - one nagging complaint I have is that the
instrumentation is not identified anywhere in the liner notes) based tune,
whose refrain, "I'm happy...so happy, he said" disguises unspoken feelings
hidden deep inside. Another lesson gleaned from Cohen: never has elation
sounded so mournful and fleeting.

"Coffee" peaks with the nursery rhyme quality of "Don't Ever Go," a
perfect little ditty for putting the little ones to bed for the night.
It's chorus tugs at the sleeves as Daddy's little girl begs for just one
more song before drifting off to sleep....

Unfortunately, most of "side two" of the original cassette loses the
momentum established so far. The disjointed stutter-steps of "The Big Kick,"
the hesitant dirge of "A Quiet World" and the seemingly unfinished title
track meander aimlessly into an awkward reading of Emily Dickenson's misplaced
poem, "I Heard A Fly Buzz When I Died." "Pony and Me" wears out it's welcome
quickly with self-indulgent guitar noodlings (something thankfully absent
from most of the box) while "Hearts and Flowers" isn't bad for "open mike"
night at the local coffee bar (in Nepal.)

Overall: 9 out of 15. [NOTE: Ratings throughout are based on
the number of tracks I would play again at a later date and time. However,
in order to fully appreciate each release in its original context, see
my CAVEAT EMPTOR at the end of this article.]
Recommendation: Return to the beginning after Track 9.

Portugal (1990)

Reversing the ominous trend of Coffee in Nepal, Portugal's
pleasures don't reveal themselves fully until "side two." However, the
groundwork is laid out quite nicely with a few killer tracks to start off
the disk. "The Gypsy Susanna" and "The Windmill Song" both apply the stereotypically
fleeting gypsy lifestyle to male/female relationships. (I wonder if Susanne
is Hungarian?) The former features the ghost of Cohen with one of those
haunting melodies you find yourself humming a few days later, trying to
recall the title (perhaps one of those "Songs" [Master, Teacher, Stranger?]
from the first album.) "I've Got the Sun in My Pocket" recalls Britfolk
stalwarts Fairport Convention or Incredible String Band and sounds like
an update of some old traditional British folktale, but studio trickery
and some annnoying backward masking towards the end seem unnecessary. "Lovers
in A Row" again recalls a recent GPJs' tune, perhaps from their latest,
Seven Fathoms Down and Falling (Woronzow, 1999). The highwater mark
of Portugal, however, lies in the next track, "She's gone, she's
gone, she's gone, oh daddy, she's gone." With banjo accompaniment, this
is as soulful as I've ever heard Jeff and comes off like Dylan trafficking
in some mutant strain of John Barleycorn.

"The Handmaid" introduces the spectre of Nick Drake, with its painfully
sparse arrangement and dislocated vocals. "The Wishing Well," recalls Lennon
alone in the Dakota, yearning to escape the outside world and disappear
forever with his lover. An encapsulation of that cross gendered emotion
I spoke of earlier, this time Jeff perfectly captures that elusive feminine
trio: angst, guilt and regret. A quick little Irish jig, the banjo-based
"Sasha ni Kelly" (Susanne's "pet" name?) would not be out of place on a
Clive Palmer solo record and sounds very much like "Coventry Carol," his
short contribution to the Woronzoid compilation. Another pint and
pass the corned beef, please!

"Oh, My Mary" reminds me of some old Civil War ballad of lost love,
with its banjo picking and longing chorus. Next we come to the "hit" single,
as if something so romantic could ever apply to Jeff's tunes. "Fat Coach
Merrill" is the closest to what one expects from a Green Pajamas release:
great melody, toetapping back beat, curious storyline that doesn't really
go anywhere and the feeling that you've just heard the best undiscovered
gem that you have to turn all your friends on to. This should have been
on every radio station across the country 10 years ago.

My favorite piece, the waltz that is "Laura Petry's Eyes" reminds me
of my own crush on a TV character from my youth (OK, mine was "That Girl,"
Ann Marie.) I can readily identify with this fantasy of meeting my secret
love in a local bar, sweeping her off her feet, sharing the most romantic
of dances and then disappearing into the night, knowing it could never
be.... Perfection!

Two new tracks, "Longing For Love" and "The Princess" wrap up the disk.
Although recorded nearly a decade after the others, they fit in quite nicely
with the emotions and moods expressed in the previous tracks.

Overall: 12 out of 17
Recommendation: While its charms may require several tastes
to fully enjoy, this is best experienced over the bottom half of a gallon
of fine Portguese port. Jeff's Pink Moon.

Priavte Electrical Storm (1992)

Expanding to 8 track recording and relocating to Tom Dyer Studios and
fellow Pajama, Joe Ross' farm, the sound on PES is fuller but the
songs still retain their melancholic, almost childlike quality. "Dr. Diane"
may be the same co-worker that Jeff romanticized about on Strung Behind
the Sun's "Dr. Dragonfly" and "The Elusive Dr. D." Joe told me recently
that "Dr. Dragonfly" was "about someone Jeff works with... And if
you listen to 'The Elusive Dr. D,' it's about him fantasizing about one
of his co-workers." If indeed this is the same Diane, I'd say "obsessing"
is a more apt description. However, Susanne is OK with this. Besides singing
backup on the track (along with Pajama drummer Karl Wilhelm's daughters(?)
Barbara, Lyndsey and Shannon), she has said, "Well, if he wasn't so passionate
about things, he wouldn't be making music." Joe added, "But that's just
Jeff. He's passionate about women."

"Find A Way" and the Pajamas-like "Lavender Field" both feature that
band's rhythm section circa Book of Hours, Karl Wilhelm and Steve
Lawrence. In fact, their tracks on "Find A Way" were laid down during the
recording sessions for Book of Hours, so these songs lend a much
different aura to Jeff's solo material than the previous disks. Rather
than championing the infusion of additional outside input into the mix,
I would say this results in the loss of innocence that we've grown accustomed
to. Admittedly, "Book" is my least favorite Pajamas' release, but I still
think some of its slick "new wave" sound has inappropriately crept into
Jeff's recordings here.

But that's not to suggest PES is without merit. "Marching To
the Moon" is vintage Cohen: over his trademark nursery rhyme-like swinging
melody, complete with bouzouki-like backing and even namechecking one of
his songtitles in the first verse, "This is for you/You know who you are,"
Kelly singspeaks his way through a typical tale of regret and remorse over
someone that he let get away. Jeff's paean to Dante Rossetti's wife, Elizabeth
Siddal, "My Elizabeth To Me" and the next track, "Queen of the Violet Room"
are both beautiful, yearning love songs. In the past, Jeff has praised
Siddal's "very sad, melancholy poetry." In fact, he has suggested that
a future project will involve "taking her poetry and setting it to music.
It's going to be very Gothic... It'll be kind of dark and pretty
and melancholy." The fruits of these efforts have already revealed themselves
on Ash Wednesday Rain (another solo release not included here) where
Jeff wrote "A Year And A Day" based on one of her poems.

Jeff whips himself into a guitar frenzy with "My Wife and Other Strangers."
His guitar attack and the manner in which he nearly spits out the lyrics
suggest that Susanne's obviously unbridled trust of Jeff around the opposite
sex is not unequivocally reciprocated. "Sand (In Search of Daisy Clover)"
affords Jeff the opportunity to re-examine one of his favorite subjects,
the innocent little girl buried "inside Daisy Clover" fighting to emerge
from the protective shell she has placed between herself and the world.

Finally, we come to (one of) Jeff's Joan of Arc songs, "All The Maids
in France (Vaucouleurs)." He told me that he and Susanne went to visit
some of the sites from Joan's life, although they never actually made it
to up to Vaucouleurs. So, armchairing the tour in his mind and applying
his extensive knowledge of La Pucelle, Jeff recounts his visit, where "little
boys played in the ruins there, careless of ages past." Perhaps rueing
the fact that, in his mind, their trip was incomplete, he again imagines
what could have been: "What if we hitched a ride there and stayed the night
or stayed forever there?" Employing a clever double entendre, the chorus
echoes Jeff's singleness of purpose. It doesn't matter how many beautiful
women (maids) there are in France TODAY, my mind is preoccupied with THE
maid and "All the maids in France couldn't convince me to leave [Voucouleurs.]"

Two bonus tracks from the same time period end PES on a pensive
note. "Evermore" is yet another love song to Susanne, (actually, Jeff says
in his liner notes that "all of the music found herein was inspired by
her in one way or another"), while the lengthy "Since You've Been Away"
takes twice as long as necessary to present its case. Romantic strings
of epic proportion, grand pianos and elaborate arrangements, "la la la's"
and production values push this a little too over the top for me.

Overall: 8 out of 16
Recommendation: Very spotty release suggesting Jeff's solo recordings
should be made in his bedroom or home studio. Outside locations and influences,
however minimal, distract from his cozy, personal communication with the
listener. This sounds too much like half a solo record and half a (weak)
Pajamas record and the dialectics pulling Jeff in opposite directions have
derailed his focus. Perhaps the strain of 3 unsuccessful solo releases
and the lukewarm public response to the 4 Green Pajamas' releases weakened
his judgement and led to an attempt to rescue and combine the best of both
endeavors. There is clearly a distinction between a Jeff Kelly record and
a Green Pajamas record as he elaborated in an earlier quote. I think this
release suffers from blurring that distinction.

The Rosary and the House of Jade (1997)

"I've got another whole record called The Rosary In (sic) The House
Of Jade in the can - sort of a spy concept album, sort of tongue in
cheek thing. It's generally referred to as 'The Spy Tape.' I recorded all
these songs with a mystery, kind of spy theme." - Jeff Kelly (Ptolemaic
Terrascope #25)

The only (for the most part) previously unreleased disk in the box,
"Rosary" was recorded during the mixing of the Pajamas' Strung Behind
the Sun in the Spring of 1997. Assisted on occasion by fellow Pajamas,
Joe Ross and Eric Lichter, Jeff kicks off this release with something he
hasn't tackled much in the past: jazz! "The Lady Is A Spy" begins during
a rainstorm as the piano saunters along in 3/4 time, perhaps placing us
back in the '40's in a fog-encrusted London back alley. Ending with a little
segment from "On A Clear Day You Can See Forever," the spy motif is thus
established. "The Rosary 1" immediately grabs us with its Bond-like brass
intro and presents an interesting way to die that even James hasn't had
to deal with: "Beware, beware the rosary/They wring around your neck/You
only get one prayer per bead/And you don't get nothing back." "She Doesn't
Know We're Watching Her," a voyeuristic, noirish tale continues the espionage
theme. Jeff's symbolism and metaphors are in full flight and the synth
break even recalls the famous zither-based "Third Man Theme." "My Sweet
One" is an old fashioned waltz through the streets of Occupied France,
an accordian leading us around blind corners and down dead ends.

Following a quick DeWolf interlude, Susanne's recitation of Li Po's
8th century poem, "Jade Stairs Resentment" unveils our mystery heroine.
A leit motif borrowed from Ennio Morricone's "The Burglars" soundtrack
wafts through the break as the Cohenesque lilting melody of the chorus
bids us welcome to "Tokyo Town." Our quiet little local investigation has
become an international affair. Jeff cleverly and brilliantly throws us
offguard by switching gears from a jazz inflected mood to a more pop oriented
sound with "By the River," one of the few tracks in the entire box which
might actually have benefited from a full band treatment. The other, "Winter
in Moscow" was actually co-written with Joe and Eric. "Rosary" ends with
a reprise of the opening two tracks, and the musical equivalent of the
"credits" rolls by, leaving our hero endlessly waiting, stranded alone
and helpless in a foreign country. Not since Blondie's "Contact in Red
Square" has there been such a satisfying mix of high stakes international
intrigue carefully integrated into a pop context. I can't wait for the
board game!

Overall: 12 out of 14; a few insignificant interludes aside,
this is the best release in the package.
Recommendation: In general, Rosary actually benefits
from the studio setting. A concept album such as this cries out for a cinematic
treatment and provides Jeff with more tools to create the expansive John
Barry-like arrangements. More song oriented and tighter structured than
the other releases in the box, this is the closest to what the Pajamas
were mixing across town at the time. Everything that went wrong with PES
is put right on Rosary. The songwriting is stronger, the arrangements,
tighter and the delivery is more self-assured instead of self-indulgent.
The sense that Jeff is enjoying himself again is readily apparent.

Caveat Emptor

It is unfair to fast forward through a decade of an artist's career
in four hours. [Likewise, I hope I'll be forgiven for all the Leonard Cohen
comparisons. These are strictly reference points for newcomers unfamiliar
with Jeff's work. I wouldn't deign to insult either artist by proclaiming
from the highest mountain that Jeff Kelly was America's answer to Leonard
Cohen.] The natural tendency to immediately replace each disk with the
next one is a temptation that ultimately defeats any careful analysis of
an artist honored with the "box set treatment." Lost is the opportunity
to replay, digest and savor each release in its original context. I suggest
you attempt to isolate each disk, live with it for a few days, then go
back and relisten to it before moving on to the next one. This isn't after
all a 4CD set of material written over the past few years and suddenly
unleashed on the public to be devoured in one sitting. Think of it, rather,
as a photo album - individual snapshots of unrelated times and places,
each with their own little story to tell, all conveniently held together
in a handsome carrying case to be taken off the shelf now and again to
experience, cherish and enjoy.

Jeff Penczak is the host of two radio shows over WNTI-FM, 91.9 in Hackettstown,
NJ (www.wnti.org). On Mondays from 8-10PM,
tune in for "No Soap, Radio" and on Saturday mornings from midnight - 3AM
you can experience The Night Visitor's "White Noise" programme. [All times,
eastern US]. He welcomes correspondence at leapday@goes.com